Deputy junta chief visits Muslim IDP camp in Sittwe

By Admin 17 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
17 June 2023, Sittwe

Deputy junta chief Soe Win, who is also the chairman of Myanmar’s Natural Disaster Management Committee, visited the Thakkel Pyin displacement camp for Muslim internally displaced people in the Arakan State capital Sittwe on Thursday.

Soe Win handed over three rolls of tarpaulin sheets, each 100 yards long, 100 packets of vegetable seeds, 120 boxes of instant noodles and five boxes of canned fish. The camp provides shelter for more than 6,000 Muslim IDPs.

“He said all 17 townships in Arakan State were affected by Cyclone Mocha, and it will take time for rehabilitation of all the affected areas including this camp,” a camp manager who asked for anonymity told DMG. “He said those relief supplies would provide short-term relief.”

Following the storm, which made landfall near Sittwe on May 14, the regime’s Arakan State Administration Council provided three rolls of tarpaulin sheets, each 100 yards long. The camp received relief supplies from the junta for a second time when Soe Win visited on Thursday.

But the relief supplies provided by the deputy junta chief are not sufficient, according to residents of the camp, which has a population of 6,428 people across more than 1,000 households.

Twenty of 125 long houses at the Thakkel Pyin camp were completely destroyed by the cyclone, and roofs were damaged on the 105 others.

The majority of the affected population cannot afford to repair them, said Muslim IDP U Maung Lay.

“We didn’t get even a yard of tarpaulin when tarpaulin sheets were shared among 1,000 households,” he said. “Some have used tarpaulin sheets to build makeshift tents. But they can’t buy much bamboo as a pole of bamboo is sold for 1,100 kyats. But the makeshift tents are vulnerable to wind and rain. So, we want authorities to repair our houses.”

The deputy junta chief vowed to provide food and shelter for storm victims during his meeting with Muslim IDPs, according to regime-controlled newspapers.

The World Food Programme continues to supply two cans of rice and some energy snacks per person as usual, but no other organisation has supplied the Muslim IDPs at the Thakkel Pyin camp since the February 2021 coup.

Daw Thein Mya from Thakkel Pyin camp said: “Our rice got wet in the rain. The roof of our house was blown off by the storm. And the weather has been sunny and rainy alternately and I caught a cold.”

Half of the camp’s 120 toilets were also destroyed by the storm, causing sanitation concerns for IDPs.

More than 100 Muslims were killed by Cyclone Mocha, which brought high winds and storm surges up and down the Arakan State coast.